Pope Leo XIV greets participants in the third edition of the World Meeting on Human Fraternity at the Vatican on Sept. 12, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Sep 12, 2025 / 11:51 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV spoke out on Friday against what he called the business of wars, while condemning attitudes of rejection and indifference toward migrants and the poor, as he received some of the participants in the third edition of the World Meeting on Human Fraternity at the Vatican.

Among those present were several Nobel Peace Prize laureates, including Iraqi activist Nadia Murad, American Jody Williams, Liberian Leymah Gbowee, Yemeni Tawakkol Karman, Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov, Ukrainian lawyer Oleksandra Matviichuk, Filipino journalist Maria Ressa, and Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege.

In his remarks, the pontiff reflected on the need for fraternity and reconciliation in a world where wars “shatter the lives of young people forced to take up arms; target defenseless civilians, children, women, and elderly people; devastate cities, the countryside, and entire ecosystems, leaving only rubble and pain in their wake.”

The pope decried the plight of many “migrants who are despised, imprisoned, and rejected, among those who seek salvation and hope but find walls and indifference.” He also lamented that, on many occasions, the poor are “blamed for their poverty, forgotten and discarded, in a world that values profit more than people.”

Faced with all these injustices, Leo XIV insisted that “the answer cannot be silence.”

“You are the answer, with your presence, your commitment, and your courage. The answer is choosing a different direction of life, growth, and development,” he said.

The pope also called for the establishment of a broad “covenant of humanity, founded not on power but on care; not on profit but on gift; not on suspicion but on trust.”

“Care, gift, and trust are not virtues to be practiced only in one’s spare time: They are pillars of an economy that does not kill but deepens and broadens participation in life,” he said.

Thus, the Holy Father invited everyone to recognize the other as a brother or sister, which in practice means “freeing ourselves from the pretense of believing that we are isolated individuals or from the logic of forming relationships only out of self-interest.”

The pope said the planet is marked by conflicts and divisions, and emphasized that the participants of this new edition of the World Meeting on Human Fraternity are “united by a strong and courageous ‘no’ to war and a ‘yes’ to peace and fraternity.”

Leo XIV cited an encyclical of his predecessor Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti, to reiterate that social friendship and universal fraternity necessarily require the “acknowledgement of the worth of every human person, always and everywhere.”

He also emphasized that Pope Francis taught that “war is not the right way to resolve a conflict” and praised the “willingness to face conflict head on, to resolve it and to make it a link in the chain of a new process,” which he called “the wisest path, the path of the strong.”

The pope connected his reflections with the biblical account of Abel’s murder at the hands of his brother Cain and reflected on how this fraternal relationship immediately became conflictual.

However, he stressed that this first homicide “should not lead us to conclude that ‘it has always been this way.’ No matter how ancient or widespread, Cain’s violence cannot be tolerated as ‘normal.’”

“The norm is revealed in God’s question to the guilty party: ‘Where is your brother?’ It is in this question that we find our vocation, the rule and measure of justice,” he stated.

For the pope, that same question continues to echo in history and “today more than ever, we must make this question our own as a principle of reconciliation. Once internalized, it will resonate in this way: ‘Brother, sister, where are you?’”

Leo emphasized that the great spiritual traditions and the maturing of critical thought allow us to go “beyond blood or ethnic ties, beyond those kinships that recognize only those who are similar and reject those who are different.”

For the Holy Father, it is also significant that in the Bible, as scientific exegesis has shown, it is the more recent and mature texts that narrate a “fraternity that transcends the ethnic boundaries of God’s people and is founded on a common humanity.”

“The stories of creation and the genealogies bear witness that all peoples, even enemies, have the same origin, and the Earth, with its goods, is for everyone, not just for some,” he said.

He also stressed that fraternity is “the most authentic name for closeness. It means rediscovering the face of the other. For those who believe, they recognize the mystery: the very image of God in the face of the poor, the refugee, and even the adversary.”

The pope called on his listeners to identify paths, both local and international, that develop “new forms of social charity, alliances between different areas of knowledge and solidarity between generations.”

On the other hand, he called for “community-based approaches that also include the poor, not as recipients of aid, but as subjects of discernment and discourse.”

The Holy Father encouraged them to continue this work of “silent sowing. This can give rise to a participatory process focused on humanity and fraternity, which is not limited to listing rights, but also includes concrete actions and motivations that make us different in our everyday lives.”

The organizers of the third edition of the World Meeting on Human Fraternity structured this international event, promoted by St. Peter’s Basilica on Sept. 12 and 13, around 15 thematic tables.

These are spaces of dialogue that will function as laboratories for the exchange of ideas on various themes, such as the world of information, the environment and sustainability, the economy and finance, and artificial intelligence.

In this context, St. Peter’s Square will host a free concert open to the public this Saturday, one that promises to mark a turning point in the relationship between culture, faith, and entertainment.

Under the name “Grace for the World,” the Vatican square will become an open-air stage bringing together international artists such as Karol G, Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, and other singers like Pharrell Williams, John Legend, Teddy Swims, Jelly Roll, BamBam, and Angélique Kidjo.

This evening will be broadcast live on Disney+, Hulu, and ABC News Live, allowing millions of viewers to follow the event in real time.

The concert will also bring together the voices of an international choir of 250 people, including members of the Choir of the Diocese of Rome. The entire event will be orchestrated by world-renowned music producer Adam Blackstone.

But the show will go beyond music. The company Nova Sky Stories will present a visual creation that will light up the sky of Rome with a choreography of more than 3,000 drones, inspired by the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel.

This innovative staging will turn the night into a true living fresco of sounds and lights, an unprecedented sensory experience in the heart of Christendom, according to the Vatican.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.